Chasm
by FearlessRiOT
Summary: A year after the death of former Fighting Champion Beth Phoenix, Natalya Neidhart seeks retribution against Eve Torres, who she believes is to blame despite Eve's constant pleas of innocence. NOTE: I don't own WWE or their Superstars/Divas.
1. Chapter 1

_**This is Chapter One of a brand-new fanfiction idea I had which mixes comedy, drama, and action into one epic story. This chapter, like most of the chapters throughout the story will be told in two separate parts. The parts in this chapter are titled "World So Cold" (told from the perspective of Natalya) and "New Perspective" (told from the perspective of Eve). Enjoy and review!**_

_**P.S.: Yes, I know the story and the chapters are named after song titles.**_

_**P.S.S.: I don't own these characters. They belong to WWE.**_

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><p><strong>WORLD SO COLD:<strong>

The past year was a tough one indeed for Natalya Neidhart.

"Ugh, I HATE this damn show," a disgruntled Natalya violently grabbed the television remote from the edge of her coffee table. The room was pitch dark except for the flashing of the television set. She switched away from MTV and tried her best to find something, ANYTHING better. She always seemed to find better at every channel, but nothing ever seemed quite good enough.

She sat alone in her comfortable, pink beanbag chair with which she had so many great memories. She could remember the days when she, her cat, Gismo, and her BFF, Beth Phoenix, would sit around, watch marathons of their favorite crime dramas, and even have late-night Guitar Hero sessions until the people who lived below them would come up to complain about the amount of noise they were making. The beanbag chair had been there through it all. She'd been spending a lot more time resting on it the previous year than she ever had before.

Finally, the Canadian got fed up and eventually tossed the remote at the TV screen so hard it spiraled about 4 times before slightly cracking the surface of the screen. What did it matter to her, anyway? Nothing interesting had been on since the previous Monday. And seeing as it was currently Wednesday, she knew it was inevitable. Nothing ever came on Wednesday nights that peaked her interests. No amount of talking sponges and Tyler Perry shows could change that. She'd be better off watching nothing at all.

The myriad of sounds that were audible in the room, from the buzzing lightbulb in the kitchen to the humming of the air conditioner, irritated her to no end. Over the past year, she had become even more disgruntled by the day. Even the smallest of things could make her snap. This is one reason why she preferred to spend most of her time in the dark. The light had seemingly become her enemy now. She oftentimes would barely even open her curtains to take a look at the outside work.

Her dark side was emerging.

As she stood up and walked over to her mostly empty fridge, she stepped on and crushed a dirty Oreo on the floor. She opened the fridge door and realized that it had been awhile since she'd been to the grocery store. She had somehow managed to make the food in the house last for so long, but she was just now beginning to run out. Staring her right in her beautiful and distraught face, were four unopened yogurts, a bottle of apple juice, two exposed eggs – one of which was slightly cracked – some old broccoli, a bag of carrots, ranch dip, a carton of milk duds, and the lightbulb. Not exactly a feast, especially considering the broccoli and milk duds were way past their expiration date.

"This is disappointing," she tells herself out loud, shutting the fridge so hard, she almost broke the door off the hinges. The room became way darker in the process. She could see nothing but heard plenty, including her pet cat purring from somewhere in the room. "Gismo, are you there, baby?" She tried to move around the room without accidentally stepping on her feline companion. She succeeded, but did manage to crush yet another Oreo or two on the floor.

She found her way to the door, being guided by the light of her TV, and scoops her cat up into her arms. The feeling of Gismo's fur on her arms was pretty much the only thing left in the world that could effectively make her happy. Well, except for on little thing that she's been contemplating for the last year. "I've been in this house for the last eleven months," Natalya smiled even though she found nothing to smile at. "That's a very long time to be kept away from the rest of the world. But you know, I really feel like I needed a little bit of time to myself after I got bailed out. I owe Brie and Nikki everything for getting me out of there, too. That place was a disaster and I didn't belong there." She looked down on the ground at another Oreo she had crushed on her way to the door. "Jeez, I really should clean this place up. Anyway, despite the fact that I got bailed out eleven months ago, I still feel like I'm in a prison; A dark, emotional, silent prison of solitude. And I really only have one person to blame for this.

"You see, Gismo, my good friend Beth Phoenix has been gone for 12 months now. And I miss her greatly. I haven't taken the time to visit her grave yet because the memories from the apartment are painful enough to revisit." She patted down on what used to be Beth's blue bean-bag chair. "This chair, for example, was her throne. She always sat in it when we just hanging around the house. Even this wine stain on the carpet…" With the power of the light from the TV, she identified the wine stain on the carpet. "This was from a New Year's party we threw. She accidentally spilled some wine on the carpet and we never bothered to clean it up." Natalya's smile remained intact as she remembered the good times her and Beth had together. But it immediately disappeared when she recalled how it all came to an end. "Unfortunately, Beth is no longer with us. And you best believe that I haven't gotten over it."

Natalya re-entered the kitchen, set Gismo down, and grabbing a shiny, silver knife from the drawer. "Well, you know what? No more feeling sorry for myself because I lost my best friend. No more sitting around here doing absolutely nothing about it. No more pining for revenge on the person I blame for this whole thing. It's time to FINALLY make my revenge a reality." Walking into her bedroom, she twirled the handle of the knife in her right hand. It felt cold yet comforting in her hands. "I've let my emotions drag on for far too long, but now it's finally time for the payback." Nattie planted her feet firmly on the carpet in the middle of the room, glaring at her reflection first in the mirror to her left and then menacingly in at the knife. "They say payback is a bitch. Well, I say payback is hell. So…Eve Torres…welcome to Hell." With as much energy as she could muster at that moment, she tossed the knife to the right, clear across the room, driving it square into a picture of her beautiful, brunette former co-worker who she felt ruined her life forever only 12 months ago.

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><p><strong>NEW PERSPECTIVE:<strong>

"OK, I think that's the last one," Kelly said as she pushed a heavy cardboard box into the living room of her, Eve, and Alicia's new home. "I don't see any more boxes in the truck. I think you and Alicia carried them all in.

"Keyword: Carried," Kelly's good friend Eve said as she swerved her way around a maze of multi-colored boxes – blue boxes for Kelly, green boxes for Eve, red boxes for Alicia – taking up most of the space in what was to be the living room. "You look exhausted, Kelly, which I find strange because you only bought, like, 4 boxes in here."

Kelly slowly made her way back up to her pink-sneakered feet, feeling the aching in her legs and arm joints as moving the boxes was quite a hassling workout for the former gymnast. "Well, I'm sorry, Eve, but these boxes are heavy. Especially yours and Alicia's boxes."

"And this is why Alicia suggested we each carry our own boxes in ourselves as opposed to just grabbing the first box we saw," Eve reminded the perky blonde. "I personally recommended that method."

"And now looking back, that kinda did sound like a great idea," Kelly said with her left hand on her back. "You know, I wonder what you two even have in these boxes that makes them so heavy." Kelly opened up a red box on the ground that she carried – or rather pushed –in to unveil a collection of pillows. Eve couldn't help but to chuckle quietly to herself. "Oh, shut up it's not funny." An embarrassed Kelly tossed the pillow to the side and dug through the box to see if there was some kind of heavier object buried underneath the assortment of pillows. "Come on, there must be a bowling ball in here or something!"

Eve was still trying to fight back laughter. She was caught up in the hilariousness of it. Alicia, meanwhile, emerged from what would be the kitchen with a fresh banana in her right hand. "Wow, I didn't realize I had so much stuff," she said, looking at the amount of red boxes in the room.

"And Kelly could barely lift them," Eve laughed silently, not letting it die. She saw how disappointed Kelly was getting. "Oh, come on, Kelly. You know I only kid because I care."

Kelly placed a hand on Eve's shoulder. "Yeah, I know," she said. "I blame Maryse. You were spending too much time with her before we finally moved out here to Chicago." Maryse Ouellet was a blonde French-Canadian magazine intern from New York who would occasionally attend fights, but never actually fought for them. Kelly never thought sense of humor was very funny. She actually found it a bit harsh. Before Maryse decided to relocate to Los Angeles for a career in Hollywood, Eve and Maryse were almost inseparable. She still hung out with Kelly and Alicia, but Maryse took up most of Eve's friend time. Whether it was attending basketball games or going to see a movie or even helping each other hone their crafts, the two really seemed to enjoy each other's company. Things almost felt different for Eve now that she and Maryse were miles apart. "Anyway, Eve, if you're done mocking my below-average strength," Kelly flexed one of her arms. "I think that it may be time for us to figure out how to celebrate this new milestone. We're finally out of that seedy apartment."

"And we couldn't have moved out any sooner," Alicia remarked. "I started to get sick of that place. There was always some broke guy walking around trying to sell his demo to somebody."

"Yeah, and the other people who lived in the apartment were unbearable," Eve remembered. "But luckily, ladies, we made it out. And we finally got ourselves some money as well. And I think the best thing we can do now is celebrate this moment."

"Maybe we could run around the house in our bikini to Black Eyed Peas songs," Alicia suggested. Kelly gulped and looked away, embarrassed. Coincidentally, that wass exactly the first thing she did when they got their old apartment.

"As fun as that sounds, I think I have another idea," Eve suggested. "Maybe we could just do the usual and have a small party of something." Kelly and Alicia knew Eve wasn't a hard partier, so they kinda predicted that she'd suggest something a little on the tamer side. "We can invite our friends over. We can probably even play some songs for everybody."

Kelly and Alicia agreed that it would be an excellent opportunity to perform some of their songs for other people, but they expected to do something a little more extravagant. "I dunno, Eve. I was hoping we could go out on the town or something."

"I'm not sure going out to the club is a fantastic idea," Kelly said. "We've gone to almost every club in this part of Chicago. Plus, I don't think Evan will approve. We've been engaged for months and I don't wanna betray his trust."

"Good thinking," Alicia went to the blonde's side. "I wouldn't wanna give Cody a chance to mistrust me either." Kelly and Alicia both wanted to remain loyal to their relationships and feared going to a nightclub - even just to celebrate something - might leaded to some unwanted attention from other guys. They weren't single anymore, even if their good friend Eve was.

"Hey, speaking of Cody and Evan, where are they?" Eve questioned. "They could've helped us out here."

"Oh, Cody's took extra work hours today," Alicia answered, pointing behind her as a way of pointing out Cody's absence. "I don't know why he decided to do that today of all days."

"And I decided to let Evan sleep in today," Kelly said before shaking her head. "Not my best idea. Too bad you don't have a boyfriend right now, Eve. He could've helped us out."

"OK, I'm enjoying being single right now," Eve responded. "I'm not in any hurry to be in a relationship right now. When the right guy comes along, I'll know it."

"Jeez, Eve, you sound like Liz Lemon from 30 Rock," Kelly joked, turning to a flyer she noticed on the table. "Hey, Alicia, didn't you book us for this tonight?"

Kelly picked up the flyer and showed it to her housemates. Alicia then grabbed pink sheet of paper from the blonde's hands and read it quickly. "Damn it, I sure did. I TOTALLY forgot!"

"You totally forgot what?" Eve asked, pulling down a corner of the flyer so she could have a look. "Is it a gig?"

"Precisely," Alicia answered, letting go of the flyer. "We're supposed to perform at the this place downtown tonight. I TOTALLY forgot!"

"Great, what are we gonna do now?" Kelly began to panic. "We've been too busy focusing on the move to pick and rehearse a song to perform."

"OK, Kelly, don't panic," Eve tried to calm her down. "We can figure this out. It's not the end of the world. We've gone through worse before. Alicia, did you and Kelly bring your instruments?"

"Yeah, they're in the other room," the redhead informed her. "They just need to get set up. I'll go get my bass ready."

"I'll join you," Kelly tagged along. "My drums take a while to set up, anyway."

Alicia and Kelly departed to what would soon be the band room. Meanwhile, Eve stayed behind to look through one of her boxes for some guitar picks that she assumed she packed. Suddenly, she both felt a vibration in her butt and heard the chorus to "Countdown" by Beyoncé, which had been her ringtone for about a month or two. She reached into the back pocket of her tight, blue jeans, pulled out her shiny black cell phone and read the caller I.D.

A picture of Nikki Bella was staring her back in the face.

Eve hadn't seen or talked to Nikki or her twin sister Brie since she, Kelly, and Alicia first moved out to Chicago. Her relationship with the twosome was the same as everybody else's relationship with them: on-again, off-again due to the fact that they were the biggest gossipers and least trustworthy members of the Federation back in New York. She was hesitant to accept the call, but made a cautious decision to take it anyway. "I see you haven't forgotten about me."

"Now what kind of sentence is that to begin a conversation with good friends?" Nikki laughed over the other end of the phone. Eve imagined what Nikki looked like, picturing the probably-still raven-haired lady her wearing the signature lipstick her and Brie usually wore, probably along with a red shirt and skinny, black jeans that complimented her legs and rear nicely. Eve remembers that's what the Bellas usually looked like back when she was in New York. She figured not much could've changed in a year. "We could never forget about you. We just decided to call in to see how you and the girls were doing down there in Chicago."

Eve pushed aside the box she was looking through with one foot. "Well, good news is we just finally settled into a house."

"Finally?" Nikki questioned. "You're been living down there for months now and you just NOW found someplace to live? Where have you three been staying? The dirty back alley of a McDonalds or something? I notice they have A LOT of those in Chicago."

Nikki wasn't completely wrong. There were a lot of McDonald's in Chicago, but there was something Eve had to correct the twin on. "Actually, we lived in an apartment before this. Long story."

"Oh, right. I forgot the three of you moved out there half-broke," Nikki teased. "You know, I don't know why you didn't stay with us up here in New York. The federation is still going strong ever since you three basically walked out on us. Plus, me and Brie's pop-rap side project has sold more albums than your pathetic little pop-rock band wishes it could. And with any luck, we'll have sold our 8th copy by next Monday.

Eve turned to the big window in the front of the room. It had an amazing view of a beautiful neighborhood. "Alicia, Kelly, and I just felt like we needed a change. We wanted to get away from the federation before it was too late."

"Oh, we all know it was more than just that," Nikki accused. "We all know that you're hiding away from a certain Canadian blonde in case she comes out of hiding soon. Need I remind you that you KILLED her best friend?"

"OK, I didn't kill Beth. It was an accident. I told her that the last time we spoke."

"And you think she actually believes you? Come on, Eve. You can't actually think she bought it."

Eve's voice got a touch angrier as the brunette felt she didn't have to explain herself to Nikki. "Listen here, Nikki: I didn't do it. Neither you nor Nattie were there, so you can't tell me what did and didn't happen. I, on the other hand, actually know what went down."

Nikki laughed arrogantly. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that." Eve couldn't believe that Nikki – a liar in her own right – had the nerve to call her a liar about something that such as this. What did Nikki know anyway besides how to overdose on the color red? "Listen, I don't wanna upset you. I just wanted to know how the three of you were doing. Am I such a bad person for doing that?"

"Not at all, Nikki, but…" Eve began to say before hearing some kind of noise on the other end of the phone. "What the hell was that?"

"Sorry, Eve. I gotta go. Brie got into another …predicament that I need to get her out of. Ciao." Nikki signed off seductively – as she always does – and Eve heard Nikki hang up. Eve placed her phone back in her pocket. She looked down into the box and found her picks at the last minute, later departing to the would-be band room where Kelly and Alicia were.

On her way there, Eve thought about what Nikki said and wondered what would happen if Natalya came after her. She told Nattie that the whole thing was an accident, but she knew Natalya wasn't one to let someone off the hook so easily. Eve knew the truth and that should be all that matters, but when dealing with an individual like Natalya, that just didn't seem to be enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**This chapter is a flashback. It goes back to the last time Eve and Natalya had spoken to each other face-to-face while Natalya was incarcerated and offers a little bit of a backstory into Natalya's frustration. It also documents the friction in Eve and Natalya's relationship.**

**This is one of the few chapters that is NOT split between two seperate stories.**

**_**P.S.: I don't own these characters. They belong to WWE.**_**

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><p><strong>DO YOU REMEMBER: <strong>

It goes back to the"Neidhart, you have a visitor," called the security guard with the big nose and the southern drawl for a voice. Natalya Neidhart had heard him perfectly. She hated his voice, but had gotten used to it the two weeks she had been locked up.

She was lying down, looking at the ceiling with one good eye. The other had been blackened and badly bruised in a fight from earlier in the week. Having been a professional fighter, she wore it as a badge of honor. Both eyes became set on the skinny, yet armed guard outside the cell as he opened it for her. She slowly climbed out of her bunk and slowly exited the cell, following the guard down the dimly lit hallway. She wasn't in the mood to be bothered as all she could think about was what happened only two weeks earlier.

She had no idea who decided to pay her a visit, but she was very frustrated that the visitor didn't care enough to bail her out. That $3,200 was the only thing keep her away from the freedom she greatly desired. As she entered the visitor's hall and looked at the dull gray walls, shoddy lighting, and tall, shady characters, freedom was all she really wanted. That and just a tad bit of retribution.

The guard directed her to her box. Her chair was almost as uncomfortable as the suit they had her wearing and the room smelled of smoke and grease. Nattie saw that she would be separated from her visitor by a thick, unbreakable, transparent glass. Knowing the mental state she was in, it was probably a great idea to do.

However, when she saw who was visiting her, she was kind of disappointed by the separation. Approaching the seat on the other side was a tall, bronze-skinned brunette in a white t-shirt, brown jacket, and skinny blue jeans, finely complimented by a decorative belt buckle and two bracelets on her left arm. Natalya identified her immediately as Eve Torres, a woman who she was less than enthusiastic to see. She would've rather seen Brie and Nikki Bella in hopes they'd bail her out. Alas, she was being paid a visit by Eve, whom she assumed would try to fix things and fail. She didn't wanna answer the phone they'd have to communicate with each other through, but she didn't have a choice.

"You know, you got alotta nerve walking your pretty little ass into this prison to talk to me," said an angry Natalya as soon as she picked up the phone. "A LOT of nerve."

Eve began tapping her clean, unpainted fingernails on the surface in front of her. "I know that. Listen, I know I'm probably the last person in the world you wanna see right now, but I am begging you to give me a chance to explain something to you. Just hear me out."

Natalya menacingly stared a hole through the glass and at the brunette on the other side. "Well, lucky for you, I have nowhere else to go and I can't kick your ass from over here, so I might as well allow you to go on." Eve begins to go on with what she was about to tell Natalya, but was prematurely interrupted by the incarcerated blonde. "Wait, you know what? I got something I wanna say first."

Eve simply chuckled at the cut-off. "Oh, do you now? What else is new?"

"Oh, I see you got jokes," Natalya said, struggling not to flash her trademark smile. "And sweetheart, you know that enjoy a good laugh every now and again, but I want you to riddle me this right now: What the hell do I have to laugh about right now? Because of you, I'm out a best friend and I'm stuck in this horrible prison wearing this gaudy jumpsuit."

"OK, first of all, it's not my fault you're in here," Eve argued. "You're the one who shot and killed two people with an illegal weapon, right? That was your decision, Nattie. Not mine."

"OK, Eve, you better not sit there and pretend it didn't happen," Natalya says. "Acting like you're so sweet and innocent and making me look like the villain."

"Well, I'm sorry to bring you back down to reality, but it kinda is your own fault, Nattie," Eve argued, slapping the surface in front of her with an open hand. "I wasn't the one who told you and Beth to go after me that night. And for what, anyway? Payback because I was able to take Beth's championship away from her?"

"I don't think you understand that it was almost two years to the day that she won the title," Natalya recalled. "Do you realize the history she could have made had she hit that milestone? Two FULL years, Eve! That's 730 days, my friend! And thanks to you, she was just SIX days shy of this accomplishment." Natalya stopped what she was saying when she noticed Eve laughing about something on the other side of the glass. "OK, what the hell is so funny?"

Eve, one hand over her face, toned down on the laughter. "Oh, nothing, Nattie; nothing at all except for the fact that you are being absolutely delusional right now," The tone of her voice grew softer, yet at the same time serious and angry. "How can you honestly sit back there and blame all of this on me? Yes, I did win the tournament and went on to win Beth's Championship, but that's exactly what I came to the federation to do. That's what ALL OF US came there to do: win fights and earn our way to the title. I did that. But since the two of you were concerned with some stupid record…"

"The record is NOT stupid," Nattie interrupted her. "You just don't understand its prestige. You ruined and completely dumped all over all the hard work Beth and I put into it. YOU did that." Natalya looked down on her pale, tense fingers as she gathered her thoughts. "And THAT'S why we tried to take you out."

"Really?" Eve couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You ladies were gonna try to kill me over that?"

Natalya shook her head, the tips of her blonde locks dancing over her orange outfit. "Actually, we never even planned on killing you. We just planned to rough you up a little bit…well, Beth was going to. I was gonna keep lookout back during the party in case anyone got suspicious. You see, she was gonna teach you a little lesson about messing with us and getting in the way of our plans. Unlike you, Beth would NEVER intentionally kill anyone."

"Damn it, I told you already that it wasn't my fault," a frustrated Eve exclaimed. "Look, all I know is that after the two of you assaulted me in the parking lot, I woke up in the back seat – bloody, might I add – in a car that Beth was driving. I tried to get out, but we ended up in a fight."

"Your story sucks so far," Natalya criticized.

"Before we knew it, the car drove toward a cliff, and me and Beth each unlocked doors and jump outta the car to save ourselves," Eve continued. "Sadly, she jumped out too close to the edge and fell over." Natalya simulated yawning on the other side, which Eve wasn't totally happy with, but Eve figured she might as well be the mature one and not call her out on it. "I tried to get over there to save her, but I wasn't fast enough. She fell and…well, you know the rest. You showed up in another car a few minutes later."

Natalya rolled her eyes, not convinced in the slightest. "Likely story…or a well thought out, piece-of-shit excuse to make yourself seem innocent."

Eve rolled her own eyes, growing furious by the second with Natalya refusal to believe her. "Look, that's exactly what happened, Nattie. Believe me if you want to, but what reason would I have to lie to you, huh? Answer me that."

Natalya was getting just as fed up with the conversation as Eve was. The Canadian blonde just wanted to break the glass that was separating the two and rip the Latina brunette to shreds. She was already in jail. There wasn't much else they could do to her. "You know what?" that signature smile finally came out, but she smiled while looking away from her visibly equally-frustrated visitor. "I'm not gonna answer that. I don't need to. As a matter of fact, I got a question for you, Ms. Torres: what are you gonna do when I'm finally outta this place and I'm free once again? You see, if there's anything that I know you've learned, anything that I know has sunken into that pretty little brunette head of yours , it's that Natalya Neidhart plays to get even. And when I get outta here – which I'm hoping is sometime soon because my bail is only set at $2,300 – you better believe there will blood. I'm talking there will be so much blood, it'll make the blood you lost that night seem like an innocent little papercut.

Eve's green eyes didn't show a drop of intimidation at Natalya's threat. "I guess I should take that as a threat, shouldn't I? You're gonna be out for my blood?"

"You got that right, bitch, Natalya said as her and Eve exchanged fierce, green-eyed gazes at each other.

"You actually expect me to be afraid, don't you?" Eve asked rhetorically. "Well, I guess what. I'm a champion and I'm NOT afraid."

Natalya sat back in her seat. "Well…we'll just have to see about that now won't we, you little killer?"

Eve decided that it was finally the best time to end this thing. "Don't forget what you did to get in her to begin with, bitch," she says before violently hanging up and departing from the visiting room. Natalya watched Eve walk away, once again happy that Eve hadn't been wearing her title at all during the visit. It wasn't often that Eve resorted to saying words such as "bitch", so this told Natalya that Eve was probably in a state of anger she never imagined she could go to. But she also figured she'd get over it fast. Unlike Natalya, Eve wasn't much of a long-term grudge-holder.

As Natalya returned to her cell that night, she figured that when she finally got out – used her first phone call there to instruct Brie and Nikki to get some money from her savings to bail her out – she shouldn't immediately go after Eve and should instead take a little time off to herself. It would probably be awhile before she was over Beth's death and she felt that her mental state would drive her to do something she'd soon regret if she wasn't careful. A period of solitude was in her future.


End file.
